Amazon Press Release Method, the Working Backwards PR/FAQ

By the PR Gun Research desk. Updated November 1, 2026.

What is the Amazon press release method? It's Amazon's "Working Backwards" process. Before building a product, the team writes the press release it hopes to publish at launch, plus a list of frequently asked questions, a document called the PR/FAQ. Amazon CTO Werner Vogels described it on November 1, 2006 as four steps. Write the press release, write the FAQ, define the customer experience, and write the user manual. Former Amazon employees Colin Bryar and Bill Carr say the press release part is always less than one page and the FAQ five pages or less.

This page explains where the method came from, how each part is written, a fill-in PR/FAQ template, a worked example and the method's limits. Every claim about Amazon is quoted from Amazon's own pages or the book authors' site, linked in the method box.

What is Amazon's Working Backwards press release method?

Normally the press release is the last thing a company writes. Amazon flips that. The team writes it first, as if the product already exists, and then works backward to what it would take to build it.

Vogels put it this way in his 2006 post on All Things Distributed. "You start with your customer and work your way backwards until you get to the minimum set of technology requirements to satisfy what you try to achieve." He wrote that the team starts "by writing the documents we'll need at launch (the press release and the faq)."

Bryar and Carr, who worked at Amazon, wrote a book on it called "Working Backwards." In an excerpt published on Amazon's own news site, they write that most of Amazon's major products and initiatives since 2004 were created through this process, and that its principal tool is the PR/FAQ, short for press release and frequently asked questions.

The press release isn't sent to anyone outside. It's an internal document used to decide whether an idea is worth building.

Why does Amazon write the press release first?

On their site, Bryar and Carr describe the press release as "a forcing function" that keeps the author focused on the customer. When you write a release, you describe the product so a reader will want it. You aren't writing about competitors, internal capabilities or the budget.

The Amazon excerpt adds a test executives use when reading a draft. They ask "so what?" If the release doesn't describe something meaningfully better (faster, easier, cheaper) than what exists, it isn't worth building.

Vogels gave a second reason. Writing the release up front, he wrote, clarifies how the world will see the product, and not just how the team thinks about it internally.

The Amazon press release process, step by step

Vogels's 2006 post lists four documents, written in this order.

1. Press release. What the product does and why it exists, in plain words.
2. FAQ. Questions that came up while writing the release, questions others ask when they read it, and questions a user would have.
3. Customer experience. Mockups of each screen for products with an interface, or use cases with code snippets for web services.
4. User manual. Usually three sections, concepts, how-to and reference.

The later PR/FAQ process, as Bryar and Carr describe it, adds a review loop.

• The person with the idea writes a draft and books a one-hour meeting with stakeholders.
• Everyone reads the document in silence at the start. The authors' site puts the silent reading at 15 to 20 minutes, leaving the remaining 40 minutes for questions and debate.
• The most senior people tend to speak last, so they don't sway others.
• The writer collects line-by-line feedback, sends notes, revises and takes the document to senior leaders.
• The excerpt on Amazon's site says it's not unusual for a team to write ten drafts or more and meet with senior leaders five times or more.

Most ideas stop there. The excerpt says only a small percentage get the green light, and calls that a benefit, because it's a cheap way to decide where to invest.

What goes in the press release part?

The authors' site lists six parts for the press release.

Keep it short. The excerpt says the press release is "a few paragraphs, always less than one page," and adds, "There are no awards for extra pages or more words."

What goes in the FAQ part?

The FAQ has two sections, according to the authors' site.

• External FAQs answer what customers and the press would ask. How does it work? What's the warranty? What's the return policy?
• Internal FAQs answer what leaders will ask. Questions from finance, marketing, customer support, operations and HR, plus the hard technical, financial, legal and operational problems to solve.

The site's list of standard questions includes these.

• What do target customers use today to solve this problem?
• In what ways is this product better, cheaper and faster than the alternatives?
• How many customers have this problem, and how much would they pay to solve it?
• What are the per-unit economics?
• How much must we invest up front, and how will we manage that risk?
• What are the top three reasons this product will not succeed?

Amazon press release template (PR/FAQ)

Here's a fill-in version built from the six parts above. Keep the release under one page and the FAQ to five pages or less.

Amazon press release method example

The authors' site walks through a car company example. A first draft describes the "Phoenix 400," a gas mid-size SUV priced at $65,000 with nothing better, faster or cheaper than rivals. Their verdict is to discard it before writing an FAQ, because it starts from what the company can already do.

A second draft describes the "Excel 850," an electric car with an 850-mile range, a 15-minute recharge and a $19,000 price. It's what customers want, and it's far beyond what any carmaker can build today. The site says that's partly the point. A great release defines a valuable destination, and the FAQ then has to show how to get there.

Real Amazon cases named on the authors' site and in the excerpt include these.

• AWS. Jeff Bezos and Andy Jassy identified web services in 2004, but S3 and EC2 launched in 2006. The site says the team spent more than a year writing and debating PR/FAQs first.
• Fulfillment by Amazon. Built from two PR/FAQs, one from the seller's view and one from the buyer's.
• Kindle. The authors cite it as a product that needed capabilities Amazon didn't have, a device and a digital media service.
• Fire Phone. The authors argue it shows what happens when technology doesn't solve a problem customers care about. It flopped.

What do people think about the Amazon press release method?

The method's own authors list its costs. Their site says the most successful Amazon products took months of work before the PR/FAQ was finalized, and that most people outside Amazon react badly to spending weeks or months writing before building. Their answer is that a clear document saves time later, because everyone builds the same thing.

Two more limits worth knowing.

• It only works if reviewers push back. Bryar and Carr describe the meeting as truth-seeking, not selling. A team that writes PR/FAQs to win approval loses the benefit.
• It's a planning tool, not a build process. The authors' site says Amazon often used Agile alongside it once a PR/FAQ was approved.

The upside, in their telling, is that anyone can do it. You don't need design or coding skills, just the ability to write, and a first draft should take hours, not days.

How is an internal Amazon-style press release different from a real one?

When the product does ship, the internal draft gives you a head start. Swap the hypothetical customer quote for a real one, replace goals with facts, and add a dateline, boilerplate and media contact. Our guides to how to write a press release and the product launch press release cover that version. If you sell on Amazon and want ideas for retail news, see the ecommerce press release guide.

How can a small company use the method?

1. Write a one-page release for the product you want to build, using the template above.
2. Write the external FAQ in customer language and the internal FAQ with the hard questions, including the top three reasons it could fail.
3. Book an hour with two or three people who'll disagree with you. Read in silence first, then take comments line by line.
4. Revise, and drop the idea if the "so what?" test keeps failing.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Amazon press release method?

It's Amazon's Working Backwards process. The team writes an internal press release and FAQ, called a PR/FAQ, for a product before building it, then works backward to what it would take to deliver it.

Why does Amazon write the press release before development?

It forces the team to describe the product from the customer's view. If the release can't show something meaningfully better (faster, easier, cheaper) than what exists, the idea isn't worth building.

How long is an Amazon PR/FAQ?

Bryar and Carr, in an excerpt on Amazon's news site, say the press release is always less than one page and the FAQ should be five pages or less.

What are the steps in Amazon's Working Backwards process?

Werner Vogels's 2006 post lists four. Write the press release, write the FAQ, define the customer experience with mockups or use cases, and write the user manual.

Is there an Amazon press release template?

Yes. The press release part has a heading, subheading, summary paragraph, problem paragraph, solution paragraph and quotes with how to get started. The template on this page follows that order.

Did AWS use the Working Backwards press release?

Yes, according to Bryar and Carr. They say the AWS team spent more than a year writing and debating PR/FAQs before S3 and EC2 launched in 2006.